“We’re very excited about this partnership between the National Park Service and Sesame Street,” said Maureen Oltrogge, Public Affairs Officer at Grand Canyon National Park. “It’s like two families blending the best of what they have together. Our hope is that, by working together, we’ll encourage more kids to learn about their environment, get outside and explore.”

The Sesame Street Explores National Parks experience includes six short videos featuring Sesame Street Muppets Elmo, Murray and real-life national park rangers exploring their environment and all it has to offer at both Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Gateway National Recreation Area in New York. Together they learn more about nature by making fun yet simple scientific inquiries. The kit also includes activities for parents, caregivers and educators, providing them with developmentally appropriate ways to help young children learn more about science and nature.

“At the Grand Canyon Elmo and Murray learn about the endangered California Condor and how a baby condor is raised by its parents,” said Maureen. “They learn about the seasons they might see or experience. They learn what type of trees and flowers might be blooming, how to view wildlife safely and what kind of habitat it takes for animals to live.”

“Our environment is so important to us,” she added. “There are so many marvelous things to learn about in our parks. That’s why we’re so excited to work with Sesame Street.”

To learn more about all the work Sesame Workshop does to educate children about national parks and the environment, click here. To learn more about the National Park Service and the wonderful work park rangers do to protect the environment and educate park visitors, click here.

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Teaching children about science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as the STEM subjects, is an imperative we here at Sesame Street take seriously.  STEM is not just a major part of the television show’s curriculum; Sesame Workshop makes print books, e-books, and mobile apps aimed at teaching young children about STEM.

Teaching STEM is a passion of ours, which is why we approached Ridgefield Academy in Connecticut to see if any of their teachers wanted to use our book Simple Science Experiments with Elmo and Friends, published by Dover Publications, in the classroom. That’s when we were introduced to Jerry Nash, a science teacher a Ridgefield who saw a way to take this teaching opportunity a step further.

He had his eighth grade students at Ridgefield Academy film the first graders who conducted the experiments. Then he had a group of third and fifth graders do a voice-over for an instructional science video he made. We were blown away by the time and effort Mr. Nash put into bringing Simple Science Experiments with Elmo and Friends to life. We wanted to feature a few clips from the video (see above) in the hopes that teachers and parents might be inspired to think about new ways they can make science fun and relevant for young children.

If you would like to learn more about Ridgefield Academy and the great educational work they do, click here. If you want to get a copy of Simple Science Experiments with Elmo and Friends, click here. And Mr. Nash wanted to let you know if you have any questions about his approach to teaching science, you can reach him here.

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